VIEWS AND VOICES

'South China Sea' dispute puts U.S. in tough spot

By Stephen O'Harrow

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 20, 2012

~~<p>Seeing modern China as a monolith is not a useful way of looking at things.</p><p>It is good to bear in mind that China is as big as Europe, far more populous, at least as old if not older, and almost as diverse. In other words, comparing China to other countries sometimes leads us into false analogies. In addition, because China has a nominally Communist government and, as a result of not having learned much from our Cold War experiences, we tend to think of Communism as a single entity, so we suppose that China is ruled by the iron hand of a small group of senior Communists in Beijing whose word is law.</p>~~

Seeing modern China as a monolith is not a useful way of looking at things.

It is good to bear in mind that China is as big as Europe, far more populous, at least as old if not older, and almost as diverse. In other words, comparing China to other countries sometimes leads us into false analogies. In addition, because China has a nominally Communist government and, as a result of not having learned much from our Cold War experiences, we tend to think of Communism as a single entity, so we suppose that China is ruled by the iron hand of a small group of senior Communists in Beijing whose word is law. Login for more...